BLUES GUITAR BLASTERS collects eleven guitarists in twenty-one tracks from the early to mid 50’s at the peak of the post-war era. Notable exceptions aside, the album highlights the Blues style of both the era and the geography from Texas and Oklahoma that migrated west to California.

Jimmy Nolen, most famous for his “chicken scratch” with James Brown (that’s him on “poppa’s Got A brand New Bag”, “Cold Sweat”, and Johnny Otis’ “Willie & The Handjive”) opens the album with “After Hours”, an late-night slow shuffle just west of Kansas City. Languid clean-toned guitar simmers through chorus after chorus of tasteful phrasing. Next up is a pair from Albert King, “Killing Floor" and “You Threw Your Love On Me Too Strong”, both showcasing his signature sound and style. 

Lowell Fulson continues the laid back vibe with the mid-tempo horn-driven “Talkin’ Woman” with its West Coast sound and the lazy shuffle “Every Time It Rains”. B.B. King is represented with a pair from his early days on RPM, swinging his heart out on the uptempo and optimistic “Early In The Morning” and burning through gritty instrumental “Talkin’ The Blues”. Both songs are also textbook examples of electric guitar through an overdriven tube amp. Elmore James is another iconic Blues guitarist included here and we get to hear him in a slightly different setting. “Dust My Blues” is of course the expected signature song but on “Elmo’s Shuffle” we get to hear him without a slide and he lays into some stinging licks over a jumpin’ boogie-woogie shuffle.

Lafayette Thomas was born in Louisiana and got his start in California where he helped define the West Coast sound. “Jumping In The Heart Of Town” elicits the memories of T-Bone Walker and Guitar Slim with it’s stinging guitar and boogie bass line as does the slow Blues “Standing In The Back Door Crying”. Guitar Slim himself makes an appearance with the call-and-response song-along “Certainly All” followed by his classic hit “The Things That I Used To Do” featuring a very young Ray Charles on his first session.

Much has been said about Ike Turner’s less than stellar behavior and the unfortunate thing for us music buffs is that it has overshadowed his musical contributions. As a teenage talent scout for Sun Records he discovered Chester Burnette, a.k.a. Howlin’ Wolf, and brought him to Sam Phillips to record who in turn sold his contract to the Chess brothers. Also while at Sun Records Ike played on a number by Jackie Brenston called “Rocket 88”, hailed by many as the first Rock ’n’ Roll record for its distorted guitar, an effect produced by a tear in the speaker filled in with a piece of paper. The amp and the paper, still shoved inside the speaker, are on display at Sun Studio. His earlier work has somewhat fallen by the wayside while the Ike & Tina catalog remains fairly well known. Prior to Tina he recorded a number of instrumentals with his Kings Of Rhythm and here we are treated to one of his baddest, “Twistin’ The Strings”. His over the top whammy bar action foreshadows both Lonnie Mack and Jimi Hendrix while being in a league of its own.

Texas takes over for the next two pairs. Houston Third Ward native Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson shows up with his classic slow Blues “Three Hours Past Midnight”, his one-finger picking style in full force yanking the strings for all they’re worth. The theme is continued as the tempo picks up with “Oh Babe”. Austin-born Pee Wee Crayton was a T-Bone disciple like no other and the Jump Blues instrumental “Twinky” shows him flying that Texas flag with pride complete with traces of Western Swing in his chord work. “Mistreated So Bad” is another simmering after-hours Blues in the same vein as the opening track, this one with vocals.

T-Bone Walker had an overarching influence on nearly all the guitarists on this set, as well as everyone who came after them, so it’s only fitting that the man himself be represented here. “Hey Hey Baby” is an uptempo swinging Texas shuffle with horns and an uncommonly pronounced organ playing what could be horn parts. T-Bone’s guitar is classic T-Bone and is as simultaneously earthy and sophisticated as ever.

Two more iconic heavyweights close out the collection, John Lee Hooker in his typical gutbucket gear with “I Had A Good Girl” and Elmore James once again with “Hawaiian Boogie” which follows familiar territory with a slight twist.

Once upon a time Blues and Rhythm & Blues bands cranked out hip shaken’ house rocking’ music that reflected the optimism of better times ahead. Across the U.S. the chitlin’ circuit was home to the wildest music played by some of the wildest musicians to ever walk the audience. BLUES GUITAR BLASTERS captures a brief moment in time just before the birth of Rock ’n’ Roll when all the ingredients were percolating and gives us a glimpse into that world. Next month we’ll peek deeper with a rare B.B. King live album from before his crossover success.

Lightnin’ Hopkins recorded the same way many Blues performers of his generation did, for anybody and everybody who provided a flat fee which happened to consist of cash, liquor, or both. As a result, some albums happen to have caught him on a good day while others find him flying on autopilot. One of his most inspired albums was cut when he entered a recording studio in 1954 with bassist Donald Cooks and drummer Ben Turner to record for Herald Records. No information has been forthcoming regarding the circumstances surrounding the recordings, and maybe there are none save it just being an “on” day, but at the peak of the session(s) Lightnin’s trademark Texas boogie running through an overdriven tube amp foreshadowed Rock ’n’ Roll at least a year before its explosion and set a template for an entire school of guitar slingers.

Initially sales were slow and the first couple LP rereleases continued the trend. Aimed at the Folk/Blues market of the time his juke joint boogie in overdrive just didn’t click. That changed over the years as another generation of Blues fans who preferred the music in its full throttle primal form discovered Lightnin’. The full sessions were released on Diving Duck Records as two LPs, BAD BOOGIE VOLUME 1 and BAD BOOGIE VOLUME 2. Running in chronological order Lightnin’s amp can be heard to warm up over the course the session. At the beginning, throughout Volume 1, it’s fairly clean with just a bit of snarl as he navigates through more or less familiar territory in fine form. Volume 2, however, is where things start to happen. The tubes in the amp have warmed, saturating the sound, and Lightnin’ himself is feeling loose and fired up at the same time. Apparently the liquor kicked in about the same time as the guitar amp and he’s off flying through the stratosphere.

Three songs into Side 1 of Volume 2 Lightnin’ peaks with the guitar instrumental that became a standard for every guitar slinger to follow, “Hopkins Sky Hop”. Popular opinion places Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” with Ike Turner from 1951 as the first Rock ’n’ Roll record because of its distorted guitar but the song is still very much a Jump Blues number featuring piano and saxophone with the distorted guitar merely doubling the bass line, a common studio trick prior to widespread use of the electric bass. “Hopkins Sky Hop” on the other hand is pure unadulterated guitar boogie in all its raw six-string splendor. Electric guitar and rhythm section, nothing more, tube amp overdriving. Recording engineers of the time would often tell guitarists to turn down which would affect not only the volume but the tone due to the inherent qualities of vacuum tube technology, while on gigs they would turn their amps up resulting in a glorious sound that equipment manufacturers have been trying to reproduce ever since. Buddy Guy struggled famously with this. No such problem plagued Lightnin’ on this day in 1954, his amp is turned up and while not a live album he’s flying like we can only imagine he sounded in the juke joints of Houston. Other highlights are “Moving’ Out Boogie”, “My Little Kewpie Doll”, and “Had A Gal Called Sal”.

The two BAD BOOGIE LPs can still be found and with numerous CD releases over the years were eventually released as THE HERALD SESSIONS. His influence was echoed in 1983 with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble’s “Rude Mood” from their debut album TEXAS FLOOD and in just about every guitar boogie instrumental since. With a lack of live recordings this may be also be one of the closest representations of Lightnin’ sounded in his natural element.